Russian drone strike on Ukraine apartment building kills four: officials

A Russian drone blasted a hole in an apartment building in northeastern Ukraine during a nighttime attack, killing at least four people and injuring nine others, officials said.

The Shahed drone blew out a wall and surrounding windows in the apartment block in Sumy, a major city, just after 1 am, the Sumy regional administration said on Thursday.

Four people were rescued from the rubble, and a child was among the injured, adding that 120 people were evacuated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it "a terrible tragedy, a terrible Russian crime".

The war between Russia and Ukraine, which enters its fourth year next month and shows no signs of ending, has killed more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.

Civilians have also endured hardship caused by Russian attacks on the power grid, denying them heating and running water.

Many have been evacuated from areas along the roughly 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) front line where Ukrainian defences are straining to hold the Russian army at bay.

The fighting has been especially fierce in recent times in the eastern Donetsk region, which Russian forces partly occupy and appear bent on capturing completely in the coming months.

A Russian artillery strike on the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk injured eight people, including two young children, Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin wrote on his Telegram channel Thursday.

"Anyone who still remains in the Donetsk region is putting themselves in mortal danger," Filashkin said. "Take care of yourself! Evacuate."

Russia launched more than 80 drones at Ukraine overnight, the air force reported, in what are common nighttime barrages. Most of the drones were shot down or stopped by electronic jamming, it said.

In Ukraine's southern Odessa region, Russian drones damaged a hospital and two apartment buildings, regional head Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram.

No one was injured, he said.